So it's a 1985 model and you insist it's 24 years old? Do you think maybe the guy had a slip of the tongue? hehe Honestly I don't know any district in Michigan who is still hanging on to 1985 models. I got ahold of my used 1985 bus six years ago. And a certain district I know of that held on to buses for the most rediculous amount of time got rid of them a few years ago!

Every effort should be made to keep later model buses in the fleets across America. Benefits of doing so are; less maintenance costs, better fuel economy, cleaner exhaust emissions, and increased safety.

One of my former employers was still running 1988 models on regular routes in a major US city under contract with a district with a 10 year rule as late as last school year. I have not SEEN that practice during this year, but I know exactly how old many of their units that I do see are, and many are older than 10 years.

I know, I know, us Crown afficiandos are a little bit odd. But the fact remains a large proportion of the Crowns that were built are still in service on a daily basis.

In a recent news article at MercuryNews.com on 3/09/2006 they listed all of the older buses still in service in CA.

Now I have to admit buses from the 60's and 70's are getting a litle bit long in the tooth. But even I was surprised to see a school was still operating a bus that was built in 1951!

To be fair, owning and maintaining a bus in the desert SW is not the same as owning and maintaining a bus in the rust belt. The fact remains that school is continuing to meet the CHP safety inspection every year. That has to say something about their PM program and the built stout reputation of the Crown Supercoach.

As much as I like Crowns, I have to echo what Brad had to say about newer equipment. Technology and safety have made great strides forward since Crown stopped building the Supercoach in 1991. And the bottom line is we have a responsibility to transport to and from safely every day. I don't think you can meet that responsibility unless you have up to date equipment.

Well, up nawth here in the rust belt, they corrode away long before they wear out. Not much you can do. Our oldest is a '99 IH Thomas. Good bus...... crumbling away.Sometimes bringing an old subject is a good thing.

If it doesn't fit, FORCE it.If it breaks, well, it needed replacing anyway.Pullin' wrenches for 45 years.

Yeah the 98 Thomas/IHC that was the oldest on route at the time of this post is now the oldest spare. The only reason that bus is still around is because the last time we purchased buses in 2009 the 99 Thomas/IHC was retired ahead of it. The oldest bus in regular service now is a 2002 Thomas/IHC. As this topic has aged, so has the age of our fleet and most fleets in the state. Between budget cuts and the increased price of the units they are not being replaced as fast.

Yeah the 98 Thomas/IHC that was the oldest on route at the time of this post is now the oldest spare. The only reason that bus is still around is because the last time we purchased buses in 2009 the 99 Thomas/IHC was retired ahead of it. The oldest bus in regular service now is a 2002 Thomas/IHC. As this topic has aged, so has the age of our fleet and most fleets in the state. Between budget cuts and the increased price of the units they are not being replaced as fast.

That seems to be a theme around here too. We don't have rust issues to speak of here so all I have to do is keep them going.

The oldest spares we have are now 1991 Blue Bird Internationals. We got rid of the rest of our Waynes last year. We still have a few 36 passenger 1989 Ward IHC's and a 1989 Ward Vanguard used as activity buses (I believe they have had a lot of work done to them).

Our oldest in-use-every-day buses are late 70's, all 200k+ miles. We also have several mid-80's Detroit 8.2 GMC's with 200k+.

quote:I was just curious to see if I was the only one that still uses the old 91 GMCVs. We have 7 getting reinspected this month. Still running very well with 100k plus. My oldest is 90 Chevy/BB with a 8.2, finally fixed all the leaks.

I didn't want to look at a yellow or orange dash, so I ordered every conventional (now type C) chassis painted ALL BLACK including the grille inserts and my required automatic radiator shutters. ($4798.88 1972 IH chassis) The body manufacture painted the hood orange as required.

The bus I put into service in the fall of 1973 was ordered in 1972 with 1972 specs & was painted ORANGE. The state of Minnesota passed a grandfather clause that allowed all pre-1973 buses the option to remain orange unless extensive body work was required at which time the bus would be painted NATIONAL CHROME YELLOW.

The Minnesota State Patrol choose 1995 as the last year to place a Minnesota School Bus sticker on the windshield of ORANGE buses & most had already been removed from service but they made a mistake and put a sticker on my ORANGE 1972.

JANUARY 1st, 1997 I officially retired the last NON-CONFORMING COLORED SCHOOL BUS IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

The bus is still sitting at Paynesville Motor & Transfer Co. Inc. in it's totally original condition plus all the updates I did to meet and exceed all State, Federal, & my requirements.

The bus has all the "original seat upholstery" & no body repair work. It has displayed at the National School Bus Driver Competition, National School Transportation Assn.(charter member #23), 50th anniversary of the Minnesota School Bus Operators Assn, Allison Transmission trade magazines, many medium & heavy duty trucking & supplier magazines with full 2-page spreads & 2-page inside front covers etc. for Allison Transmission advertising.

Quit a resume for a school bus that was originally equipped with stop sign with a lever that required the driver to manually push out the stop sign which also flashed the red lights. Try that in a strong wind. This bus was used to prove the original carburetors were dangerous, hard to push the throttle open resulting in the carb. throttle plates and all linkage failing prematurely & if any linkage disconnected the throttle instantly went WIDE OPEN, & impossible to regulate the manual choke. A new carb. from a IH pickup corrected all the above & had improved power & fuel economy.

In the early 1980s I used this bus to demonstrate a video sent to the school bus manufactures showing a $4.- modification to beautifully control the interior heating/defrosting system with a water faucet handle on the dash to the right of the speedometer and it also saved the heater cores & all heater hoses from prolonged high temperatures & pressures.

My company motto since 1962------------"YOUR CHILD'S SAFETY IS OUR FIRST CONCERN"-----------DWIGHT

I have worked for a couple of contractors, and have never figured out why when they bought new buses, they would make some of them spares. Some of the buses they had were 10 plus years old, with 150,000-200,000 plus miles on them. One would think that if a bus was that old, with high mileage, it should be used only when necessary, and be worked out of the fleet. The contractor I worked for on Long Island would not remove buses from the fleet, they would just add to it. The majority of their older buses are all Wayne's on Ford Chassis. These buses date back to 1985, and do not have the stop signs on them. One of them Stephen king novel, this bus definitely had a mind of it's own, and an evil personality, lol! The old Wayne's rode like lumber wagons, but I loved the one I ended up with, which was the sister bus to Christine, and was very upset when they took it away from me, and put me in a 2000 IHC conventional. I am still considering calling the contractor and seeing if I could buy my old bus. I miss the Ford Conventionals, . In CA, I had a 93 ford on a Carpenter Chassis, my only complain was it was a typical Carpenter, slow.

Oldest 1991 International Bluebird 48 passenger DT360 with 382k miles. Still picking up kids on a daily basis. We put 20k miles on it this year and she never drove a spare......Not the oldest but I also have a 1996 GMC Thomas 22 passenger 5.7L gas with 254k also logged around 18k this year and didnt miss a day of work........No rust here in Va. so as long as it passes safety inspection they can run.

Any high mileages out there? We've had quite a few buses top 500k. That's not hard for a Crown, but some other makes have also passed that mark.

What engine does your 500k bus have? I've got a lot of cat 3126s and I'm seeing some rings break. Causes them to use lots of oil. The two I've had apart didn't have 150k on them yet. I wrote about one on here a couple of years ago. Going through the same ordeal right now.

I have a T444E with 379k, a DT360 with 383k, and a 1995 Intl Thomas with 445k with around 200k on engine and transmission. I find it interesting that alot of people swear by a new fleet of buses. Old buses are high maintenace and cost alot to keep up etc.....I maintain a 10 bus fleet on around 10-12k dollars a year including regular routine maintence. My buses are working too logging 15-20k miles a years. It just seems that if I can buy a bus at auction from the county and easily get another 5-10 years out of it they could too.....That would save a lot taxpayer money. Keep in mind here in Va. there is no rust and I agree that the rust buckets should go.

quote:What engine does your 500k bus have? I've got a lot of cat 3126s and I'm seeing some rings break. Causes them to use lots of oil. The two I've had apart didn't have 150k on them yet. I wrote about one on here a couple of years ago. Going through the same ordeal right now.

That would be plural with several 6-71 powered Crowns past the 500k mark. There are some IH buses with 3208 Cat's also creeping into that range. Most of the 6-71's are originals with an in-frame, or two, or three. If it weren't for pollution, some of these would go a few hundred thousand more miles. We also have new buses, but personally, I don't see much safety advantage over the well built old ones. It also needs to be said that our CNG transit school buses are racking up the miles and close to rivaling the Diesels for staying out on the road working.